Friday, January 4, 2013

James' 5 Toxic Beliefs, Mind Mapped

Having just blogged about books I like to have as mind maps, I ran across "5 Toxic Beliefs That Ruin Careers" by Geoffrey James, an Inc. magazine article that seems like a good thing for all you/we entrepreneurs out there (except for those of you who are so unrelentingly confident that none of these beliefs plague you) who want to start 2013 off on the right foot... the proper foot, I should say.

It makes me feel like adding...
This map may not be the best example. It's a very short article, as opposed to a long book. But it does show how mind maps put information in a very different setting. Is it better or worse than a regular article? Probably not.

But seeing things as a mind map always get me thinking about how to add my own content. In this case, I want to add:

My personal thoughts about each belief.

Examples of how a belief has screwed me up in the past.

And how I (or others) have helped myself move on...

And it's easy to do...
I've always liked the mind map form because it makes information so easy to amend, annotate, adjust. I'm a writer, so I know how to insert copy into word programs. But it always feels like I'm shoehorning something in to something that's finished.

But when the information is in a map, the interface just screams out to me to hop in and add a comment, rearrange the order, add a graphic--all to make the information more personal and useful for me.

But that's just me. Would it work for you? Take a small risk and find out!

NOTE TO VARIOUS AND SUNDRY LEGAL DEPARTMENTS: I do not intend in any way, shape or form to plagiarize this article in the process of turning it into a map. I have linked the title to the Inc. page. I have cited the author. I am not trying to pass it off as my own thinking. Instead, I am simply trying to help spread James's nice piece of work.